


An Adventure Like This

by arojakenglish



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Aromantic Jake English, Asexual Jade Harley, Asexual John, F/F, M/M, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-26
Updated: 2015-05-26
Packaged: 2018-04-01 10:50:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4016929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arojakenglish/pseuds/arojakenglish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jake goes missing and da crew goes looking for him.<br/>In which John is a computer programmer, Jade is a mechanical engineer, Dave is a photographer, Roxy is a robotics programmer, Rose is a psychologist and a writer, and Jake is a missing archaeologist.<br/>(John/Dave, Rose/Kanaya, Jade/Roxy, and Jake/Happiness are endgame with some minor ships mentioned here and there)<br/>I may make this from multiple perspectives and turn it into a little collection, like a pick whose eyes you want to see this through thing. We'll see. For now it's just Egbert's view.</p><p>UPDATE PLS READ THIS (17.06.15 will delete this note 22.06.15)</p><p>Hello friends, there has been a change in how i'm writing this fic. I've decided I like it better in 3rd person, and I think it flows better, so very soon (within a week) I will update the chapters and post the third one in 3rd person. The story will remain the same, but I think it will work better this way! Thanks for your understanding!!!!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This 1st chapter is kind of short, but from here on, they'll be longer!  
> This is just how John and Dave meet, and why they start hanging out.  
> Inspired by an au post I saw on tumblr!

*BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP*

Sleepily, you blink your eyes and groan, rolling over and stuffing your head under your pillow. You are John Egbert and you are tired of the god damn fire alarm going off at 3 in the damn morning. You let the piercing shriek of the fire alarm find its way through your pillow and fester in your ears before rolling back over the other way and straight off the bed. Groaning, you roll across to the door. If this is that Strider kid again…

You pull yourself up by the door handle and stumble into Jade’s room. Your cousin could sleep through anything, meaning you have to use an air horn to wake her up. You shove her off her bed and pull her up, grabbing the air horn. You lean your head away and push the top down. *fweeeee*

Jade swats at the air as you pull her toward the door, tossing the air horn behind you onto her bed.

“Come on Jade, fire alarm’s going off again.” She stands up on her own but continues to hold onto the back of your shirt as you lead her outside and out into the yard. You turn around and face the house, and, sure enough, the top left apartment is smoking for the 40th time since he arrived. Strider.

You talked to him a grand total of one time, the day after he moved in. It was 1:20 in the morning and he burned something and set off the fire alarm. He apologised (you were the only other one in the building that night) and you never talked to him again. Not even the next 39 times he set off the alarm in the middle of the night, forcing you to stand outside in the cold waiting on the fire truck. And the only thing you knew about him was his tendency to light things on fire. And his last name, Strider, which was posted on his p.o. box.

Next thing you know Strider comes out of his apartment, coughing and followed by a lot of smoke. He jumps over the railing and lands smoothly on the lawn in front of you. You meant to yell at him, but your mouth is too busy hanging open.

He strides over to his truck parked across the street in his garage, and rummages around, emerging with what might be headphones and a phone. You’re hopeless without your glasses. The fire truck finally arrives and a fire fighter walks up to you.

“Another Strider?” They ask you. This phenomenon has become very well known among the night shift workers at the station. You nod and they sigh, heading back to the truck to radio the station. You roll your eyes and make a decision. You’re gonna talk to that Strider guy. You are normally fairly cheerful, but it is 3 in the damn morning. So you’re not feeling all that nice right now. You march over to him and poke his arm.

He turns to look at you and you really wish he wasn’t wearing those shades right now, wait why is he wearing shades, it’s the middle of the night! Oh yeah, you’re angry.

“Can I help you?” He asks and shit you wish you could read his expression.

“Yeah, actually, you can. You can stop burning stuff in the middle of the night.”

“Sorry man, a dude’s gotta eat.” He says, unhooking his headphones and shoving his phone in his pocket.

“Well it’s rather hard to eat when you burn everything, now isn’t it?” You shove his headphones at him. “And why are you always eating in the middle of the night. Eat before you go to bed!”

“Is there a point to this?” He asks. You fume.

“UM YES! STOP BURNING FOOD AT 3 IN THE DAMN MORNING!” You yell, getting up on your toes so you’re eye level with him. Jade looks over at you and gives you the evil eye. You lower yourself back down and collect yourself. No need to be obnoxious. That appears to be Strider's job.

“Well, sorry, I don’t know how to cook.” He stares you down. Or, at least you think he does. You can’t see past his shades. He could be looking at his smoking apartment for all you know.

“You don’t know how to cook?” Waves of sympathy roll through you. “I could… teach… you…?” You squint a bit and look at him.

“That’s cool.” Ok, that’s not a confusing answer.

“Umm, so that’s a…” Trailing off you raise your eyebrow at him.

“Yeah sure man, if you feel like it.” He brushes past you and you glance over your shoulder to see that his apartment is clear of smoke.

“Cool! I’ll see you tomorrow… uh,”

“Dave.” He calls back waving over his shoulder before walking up the stairs and disappearing into his apartment.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imma go ahead and post this because I have it done, but it'll be a bit before chapter 3 is done. I had a lot of time today to work on this chapter, so I figured I'd post it, but I won't have much time over the next couple days!  
> Hope you guys enjoy it!

“John. John, get up! You said that you would run with me!” You groan and curl up tighter under your blanket. Sure, you promised Jade you would go on a run with her, but that was before you had to wake up in the middle of the night because someone set the fire alarm off.

“No, Jade, that was before I had to get up at three because of the freaking fire alarm.” Next thing you know, you’re on the floor and your blanket is gone. You curl up in a ball. “Jaaaaaade give me my blanket baaaack.”

“Not until you go running with me like you promised! Come on, John. Running’s good for you. It keeps you healthy!”

“Yeah but at what cost?” You groan, wiggling over to your pile of clothes and digging yourself under them before Jade comes over and pulls you out, shoving a pair of shorts and a shirt at you.

“Get changed and don’t forget to stretch! I’ll meet you at the street! I’m gonna warm up on the stairs.”

Ugh.

You shove the shorts and shirt on and go to the bathroom to splash some water on your face. The water is freezing and it absolutely succeeds in waking you up, despite your internal protests. After grabbing a sip from the water bottle in the fridge, you head down the stairs to meet Jade at the sidewalk. She’s bouncing up and down, wide awake. Once she sees you, she takes off, waving for you to follow her. Groaning, you start to jog behind her.

Jade loves running. Blood pumping, sweat flying, breathing ragged, the whole shebang. As you stumble after her, breathing heavy and desperately attempting to keep up with her, you wonder what motivates her to do this every morning. What in the hell could make someone enjoy this as much as she does.

You push on, feet pounding the pavement, legs trying to give out, and you can kind of get it. You feel kind of powerful. Or, you would if your legs weren’t suddenly made out of noodles.

Finally, after an hour, Jade slows down and jogs over to a water fountain. She leans down and takes a long sip as you collapse in the grass surrounding it.

“Jade. Jade I’m dying. You’ll have to carry me home.”

“John. You’re fine. We’ve only gone an hour! That’s only half of my normal run!” Jade is bouncing up and down as you lie in the grass.

“Just leave me here to die. I got 6 hours of sleep last night with a rude interruption in the middle, and I have to go to school in an hour and a half, I need to go home. Call me a taxi.” Jade pulls you up and leads you over to a bench by the water fountain.

“It’s summer, school ended a week ago, remember? Maybe I should take you home.” She looks over at you and you stare at her and her ridiculous sport glasses. “How about we walk home.” Groaning you put your head on her shoulder.

“Right after I take a nap.” Jade laughs and pulls you up.

“Come on loser.”

You walk in silence for a while, Jade marveling at nature while you desperately attempt to get your breathing under control. After your breathing is a normal rate, you ask, “So, anything new and exciting with you?”

“Not much. I’ve been chatting with a girl I met at a robotics convention a couple weeks ago, Roxy. She’s really nice and she’s really good at programming robots. Which is great for me, because I’m really good at building them! We’re going to collaborate on something. Which I’ve been meaning to talk to you about. Is it okay if Roxy stays with us while we work on our project?”

“Yeah, sure. When’s she coming?” If Jade likes her, she’s cool with you. Jade’s a pretty good judge of character. And you know that whatever Jade comes up with is gonna be pretty dang cool. You love her robot projects. Except her dream bot. It keeps waking you up. On the one hand, it’s super sweet that Jade dreams about you. On the other hand, it’s really annoying when her dream bot starts interrupting your sleep.

“Tomorrow. I needed to tell her if she should book a hotel by tonight, and I kept meaning to ask you, but my reminders on my phone aren’t working. I think I’ll have to switch back to the strings around my fingers.” She links her arm through yours. “Have you heard anything from Jake recently? I haven’t heard anything in a couple weeks.”

You shake your head, pulling Jade to a stop in front of another water fountain. “Not since he called us a month ago.” You lean down to take a sip. Water has never tasted so good.

“I think I’ll try to call him or Rose later. I’m kind of worried! It’s not like him to just stop calling.” Jake had gone with his friend Rose. You don’t know her very well, but Jade does and they’re pretty close, despite being very different.

“I’m sure he’s just distracted by whatever he’s studying now. You know how he is with archaeology. And Rose did take him to an archeological dig.” After wiping the remaining water from your face, you link your arm with Jade’s again and continue home.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Despite her smile, Jade still sounds worried. Which is reasonable. You’re worried, too. It’s not like Jake to disappear.

You walk the rest of the way home in silence, occasionally stopping in order to drink more water.

Once home, you collapse on the couch and grab the remote before remembering that you were going to teach Dave Strider how to cook. You decide it can wait until after an episode of Parks and Recreation.

“John, you should really be looking for a job. You know your Dad won’t support us all on his own, he needs us to get summer jobs.”

“Ugh, just go to your cushy paid internship and leave me here to wallow.” Jade just smiles and walks out the door, leaving you on the couch feeling guilty. Damn. She’s good.

You really don’t feel like looking for a job right now. But you have to do something after Jade’s guilt trip. You’ll teach Dave to cook. That’s something and it doesn’t require leaving the building. Shoving up off the couch, you grab your keys and your phone and head for the door. You lock it behind you and slump over to the stairs. You’re still sore from your run with Jade this morning. Why on Earth does this building not have an elevator? What idiot decided not to put one in?

By the time you get up the stairs, you’re dying and you just want to take a nap. For a two story building, there sure are a lot of stairs. You sludge over to Dave Strider’s door and go to ring the doorbell, only to find that it is broken in half. Ooookay. You knock on the door instead.

After waiting a good minute, you knock again. A couple seconds later, the door is wrenched open by a very disgruntled Dave (Author’s note: apparently, gruntled is a word, so that was a cool factoid). He’s wearing a wrinkled white shirt with a hat on it and black sweatpants, his signiture shades resting on his nose.

“Shit, dude what are you doing here, it’s like 9 in the morning.” he says, smoothing his hair down and straightening his glasses, which he is still wearing.

“I’m here to teach you how to cook!” Since we’re all sick of you waking us up in the middle of the night with your shit cooking. Dave just looks at you for a minute before sighing and turning around and walking back inside.

“Well come in dude, I’m already awake, might as well do something.” You step in after him and shut the door behind you.

Shit it’s dark in here. How does he see anything with his shades on all the time? Following him into the kitchen, you take in his apartment. Once your eyes have adjusted, you can tell it’s an utter mess. There’s what appears to be swords and nunchucks spilling out of boxes among clothes and various household items. In the kitchen, there’s a Macbook on the counter and what looks like mixing equipment is lying next to it. Next to the stove is a super high quality camera and a flash.

“So, what are you going to teach me, oh great master chef?” Dave asks, leaning up against the counter. He takes his shades off and hangs them on his shirt, and you’re briefly shocked by his eyes. They’re bright red. You quickly shake it off and pull out your phone to find the recipe.

“I figure we’ll start with pancakes, because who doesn’t like pancakes! That cool?” Dave nods. “Awesome! Okay, here’s what we’ll need.” After showing him the list he lets out a little ‘heh’ before shaking his head.

“I got approximately two of those things, Johnny Boy.” You stare at him. Most of those things you would consider standard kitchen items.

“Alright, no big deal, we’ll just go to my place! I’ve got all that.” Dave nods and gestures for you to lead the way before sliding his glasses back on. You lead him back downstairs and unlock your apartment, standing aside to let him go through before following him and closing the door behind you.

“Alright Egbert, teach me your ways.” You run around the kitchen gathering ingredients and utensils.

“Pancakes are a great dish to learn because literally everyone likes pancakes, you can refrigerate them to eat later, and they can be eaten for any meal!” Dave nods along and starts fiddling with the ingredients.

“Okay, so I’m gonna have you follow the recipe, and I’ll help you if you need it.” You pull out your father’s giant cookbook and flip to your favourite pancake recipe and shove it over to Dave, who raises an eyebrow at you.

“You sure about this man?”

“Yeah! I’ll be here the whole time to make sure you don’t fuck up so bad that you burn the apartment down.” Dave nods and starts combining the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt while you grab the dairy out of the fridge. “So, how are you liking Washington? Heck, where are you even from? I don’t know anything about you other than your tendency to burn food!”

“Well, I’m from Texas, so Washington is a bit different. A lot colder. A lot rainier. And a lot more progressive.”

“Wow, Texas! I’ve never been. I’ve barely been out of the state. I was born here, and so was my dad. So we don’t travel much.” You hand Dave another bowl and the dairy, indicating that he should mix that now. He takes the bowl and starts measuring out the buttermilk.

“Well, Texas ain’t that great. In fact, it’s shit. Probably the most awful state out of them all. I would not recommend a visit.”

“Is that why you left?” You grab a pan out of the cabinet and grab the rest of the butter from the counter.

“Nah, I left cuz my bro’s a piece of shit. I don’t think he ever took care of me.” Dave beats the wet mix together.

“Woah, Dave, that sucks. Well, at least you’re away from him now.” You grease the pan and set it on the stove to heat up.

“Eh, it’s cool. I got real good at taking care of myself. Although, I never did learn how to cook.”

“Clearly.” Dave smirks. “Okay, now mix the wet mix into the dry.”

“Yo, Egbert, it says in the recipe to pour the dry into the wet.” Dave points at the page and you nod.

“Yes, yes it does, but that makes no sense, so do as I say and pour the wet into the dry.” You grab a cereal bar to munch on while you wait for the pancakes.

“So your bro is a piece of shit, what about any other family?” After testing the pan with water to see if it’s ready, you gesture for Dave to bring the mix over.

“Well, I had a mom once. Duh, everyone does. But I never met her. Bro took care of me since I was six. Mom took my sister, Rose, and left, never saw my mom again. I met up with Rose again when we were 19, but we lost touch after that.” Dave says all this fairly matter of fact, but you think you can detect a hint of frustration in his voice.

“Hey, I know a Rose. Maybe they’re the same one! But either way, you’ve got an awesome friend now!” Dave looks at you with a raised eyebrow.

“And who might this awesome friend be?” He says, a hint of sarcasm gracing his voice. You roll your eyes and flick some pancake mix on him.

“Me, you dork.” Dave puts his hand on his chest, acting offended.

“A dork? Me? Nah, Egdork, I think you got it a bit backwards here. You’re the guy with the Ghostbusters poster on the wall.” You laugh and shove the bowl at him and point towards the pan.

“Just go make some pancakes, dork.” The door opens and you hear the jangling of keys.

“John, are you still here? I thought you would go out and look for a job!” Jade says as she walks in the kitchen.

“No comment on the strange boy cooking in our kitchen, just a comment on my lack of a job?” You ask, joking.

“Well, your lack of a job is a much more prominent issue than Dave Strider not knowing how to cook.” Jade crosses the room to grab a sandwich out of the fridge before turning around to walk out again.

“And what are you doing home so soon? Did you get fired?” You joke while Dave pours pancakes into the pan. Of course you’re joking. Jade could never get fired, she’s the most amazing person at that company, and she’s only an intern. She’s bound to get hired for a permanent job there once she graduates. The company’s fairly new, but they’re already the richest robot corporation in America and is run by someone your age. It’s really amazing. If only you were as good at programming as Jade is at building robots. Then maybe you’d have a cushy paid internship.

“Woah, woah, woah. That’s quite enough of that.” You stop Dave from adding any more mix.

“No, John, I’m on my lunch break!” Jade plops down on the couch and turn the TV on to some nature documentary about the Amazon Rainforest.

“Have you tried to call Jake yet?”

“Shoot! That’s it, I’m going to get the string. Dang phone won’t do its job.” She mumbles as she disappears into her room.

“That your girlfriend?” Dave asks and you sigh. Everyone always assumes you’re dating. Or you’re brother and sister. At least they’re closer with the latter.

“Nope, cousins. She moved up here to go to the University of Washington for mechanical engineering.” Dave nods. “Flip it.” He flips the pancake over and smiles a bit when he sees that it’s the perfect golden brown. You know he’ll never admit it, but he’s excited. You can tell.

“Pretty cool dude. What about you, what do you do?” Dave asks as Jade comes out of her room with a bucket of yarn and a dark green string around her index finger.

“There, now I have a reminder to call Jake.”

“You should probably put one on so you can remember that Roxy is coming and you gotta prepare for that.” She nods and pulls out some pink string. “I go to the University for computer programming. What about you, what do you do?”

“I mooch off of my bro. He has five million credit cards, so I just stole one and I’m using it. I try to find work as a photographer when mooching gets kind of old. Sometimes it’s nice to earn your own money.” You nod. “I used to want to go to college for archaeology or some shit, but then I was like, nah. I’ll just go take pictures.” He continues to make pancakes.

“Hey, Jade’s brother studies archaeology! He’s traveling around Africa right now with a friend! Although we haven’t heard from him in a while. Jade’s gonna call him in a bit.”

“In fact, I’ll do it now!” Jade reaches for her phone and flips it open. Why she refuses to get a smart phone is beyond you. She says the director of the company is going to create a phone for everyone and she’s waiting on that. You think it sounds like a Si Fi movie where the phones take over people’s brains. She insists you’re being ridiculous, and that this is real life and would never happen and that you’ve been watching too much Si Fi.

You turn to Dave as he continues to make pancakes. “You’re doing really good Dave! You probably just didn’t have the right equipment at your place.”

“Cool. So is this the end of our cooking collaboration?” Dave asks, and maybe you’re imagining it, but you think you hear a hint of disappointment.

“Hell no! We’ve just begun! This is just one breakfast recipe. We’ve got lots more to cover. Didn’t think you’d get rid of me that easy, did you?” And you think you see Dave smile a bit.

“Last one, dude.” Dave pours the rest of the mix into the pan.

“Huh.” Jade huffs from the couch. “No answer. I’m going to call Rose. I’m starting to get worried.”

“Wait, your cousin Jake is travelling around Africa with someone named Rose?” Dave asks.

“Um, yeah that’s the Rose I mentioned earlier. Do you think it’s your sister?”

“Last I heard, Rose was planning a big trip to Africa. Hey, Jade, what’s this Rose’s last name?” Dave is trying to hide it, but his excitement is evident.

“Umm, Lalonde.” Jade says, dialing the number.

“Oh jeez. That’s my sister.”

“Do you want to talk to her after I ask about Jake?” Jade asks, pressing call.

“Oh, shit, I don’t know. Sure. That’s cool.” Dave is desperately trying to mask his excitement and anxiety and is failing miserably. You get the pancake out of the pan before it burns.

Jade raises her eyebrows at Dave and whispers, “It’s ringing.” She clicks speaker and sets the phone on the couch. Someone picks up.

“Hello?”


End file.
